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2010-05-20 2010-02-26 Letter of Support on My Non Support of the Current Bonding Bill Mankato Free Press Editorial Page February 26th, 2010 2010-02-24 My View of the Current Bonding Bill February 21, 2010 My View: Bonding bill larded with pork By Rep. Tony Cornish Special to The Free Press Towards the end of the floor session with discussion on the bonding bill ongoing, plenty of time left and with Republican amendments still on Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher’s desk, the DFL majority leader stopped all debate by “Calling the Question.” This motion stops everything and calls for a vote on the subject. We were appalled, with members voicing many motions from “points of order” to “adjournment” but were gaveled out of order on every one. It was obvious to us that nothing was learned from the Washington “dirty politics” this congressional session where the Democrats shut off debate on the health care issue. The reasons I would have voted no? American Indian Resource Center for $6.6 million dollars. $5.7 million dollars for Red Lake School when we can’t get a penny for a school that is falling apart in Wells. $1.2 million dollars to the Perpich Center for the Arts. Near $40 million for trails. $4 million dollars for a volleyball center in Rochester. Millions for sculpture gardens and nature centers. $16 million for the Ordway Performing Arts Center. $17 million for Orchestra Hall. And what about the “fairness” of previous bonding bills awarding tens of millions to what our governor calls “local projects” in other regional centers such as arenas and convention centers, while the Mankato project lingers and waits for support? As a fiscal conservative, my judgment of fairness is not made on the fairness of which community gets what, but rather on the fairness to the taxpayer. What we’ve done by awarding millions of dollars to local projects in the first place is to start competition between cities and an attitude of, “they got theirs and now I want mine,” regardless of the merit of the project or whether the project has been able to sustain itself without the city subsidizing it with money from other resources. Projects seem to be awarded by how long they’ve been on the waiting list rather than merit or sustainability. The governor’s staff has noted that he will compromise from a figure of around $725 million dollars. This money has to be paid back in a debt service from our budget. In our current economic downturn, currently spending millions more per month than we take in and $1.2 billion dollars in the whole, how can we, in our right minds, encumber us in more debt than we might be able to pay back? Your government should provide jobs in this manner? Baloney! Form a bill that gives the money to small businesses in investor tax credits and low interest loans. Get the regulations and mandates off their backs and reduce paperwork and permitting processes. That’ll give you free-market driven jobs instead of temporary government-based jobs. Invest in business, not government welfare. 2010-02-08 Bonding Bill Proposal So Far-Here is the Link |
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